Community Resilience Portal

Key Terms

Antecedent Conditions (AC): The underlying issues, barriers, factors, events, and/or conditions leading up to a particular problem. These issues and barriers can also be called mechanisms of change.

Community Mitigation Maps (CMM): The visual logic maps that are the result of the root cause analysis (RCA) interviews completed with subject matter experts (SME) across multiple disciplines related to the cycle of preparedness.

Mitigation: “The capabilities necessary to reduce the loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters.” (2013 DHS National Mitigation Framework).

Problem Statement: A brief and clear assertion of an issue and/or area of concern that needs to be addressed and/or changed. Its components should be operationally defined.

Root Cause: The underlying cause of a particular problem that if changed should reduce or eliminate the problem.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Is a robust, semi-structured interview methodology used to uncover the root cause(s) of a particular problem instead of just addressing the symptoms of the problem. By identifying the root causes of a problem, targeted strategies can be developed to create permanent solutions to the specific problem.

Toolkit: A set of growing resources and tools designed to enhance community resilience and allow for the sharing of strategies and best practices to tackle the complex issues found on the root cause analysis (RCA) community mitigation maps (CMM).